A few weeks ago we spoke to you about photographer Ted Orland, and his first exhibit in Los Angeles.
But there is so much more to this man.

[photopress:art_fear.gif,thumb,alignright] As a writer and teacher and teacher, he has taken an honest approach to the life of an artist in such books as Art & Fear, written with David Bayles.

“—This is a book about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn’t get made, and about the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. David Bayles and I are both working artists, grappling daily with the problems of making art in the real world — the observations we make are drawn from personal experience, and relate more to the needs of fellow artists than to the interests of viewers.
Do not mistake Art & Fear for a pop psychology self-help book — we’re not interested in freeing your inner child! This is a book about what it feels like to sit down at your potter’s wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. What we’ve tried to do is illuminate the obstacles you face, and offer some artistic strategies for getting past them.” Ted Orland

You should definitely pick up a copy of this one.
But that’s not what we are giving away this week.

We are a visual bunch of folks here, and so we are highlighting Mr. Orlands book
“Scenes of Wonder & Curiosity – The Photographs and Writings of Ted Orland”

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“This book contains a large selection of my B&W and handcolored photographs, as well as excerpts from about fifteen years of letters to photographer Sally Mann (who in turn wrote the Foreword to this book). Much as I like to view myself as a photographer, I suspect the writings may be the more important part of this book — written in the immediacy of the moment, they encompass a turbulent decade in my own life, and a time when photography itself finally began to be recognized as a fine art by the outside world.” Ted Orland

You get a huge collection of his photographs but the insight to his work is revealed in the letters between himself and photographer Sally Mann.
As friends share personal insights, and goals, it’s what may be between the lines that contains the gold.
You are able to peer inside a very strong bond between 2 artists who can give each other support and console disappointments.

They way they share their thoughts about photography, will touch you in a deep place. Made us wish we had a pen-pal like they have.

So this book will give you many things: an excellent collection of Ted’s beautiful photographs, an intimate look into an artistic friendship, plus on the back cover, Ted’s Photographic Truths.
Some samples:
• The word “Daguerreotype” cannot be spelled correctly
• When your friends finally realize that you are a true artist, committed to making sensitive and meaningful photographs, they will ask you to photograph their wedding.
• Falling lenses are attracted to rocks.

and tons more.

We highly recommend adding this book to your library.

There is a signed copy of this book, sitting in our office, ready to send to one of you. The details will be in this weeks NEWSLETTER, coming to your inbox on Weds. at 9:00AM PST.
Just make sure you are signed up to receive it.

Whether you get it here, or from Amazon, or directly from Ted, you will get a very rich, photographic experience.

You know that there are many places to gain knowledge, and many varieties of that knowledge. Hopefully, you can make it into the right blend for you and your art.
And never stop seeking that knowledge.
(Too heavy? or too true?? ahhhh…..)

We asked a friend of ours recently, how he learned Photoshop. We always knew him as a writer, entrepreneur, and banker. Really.
His answer was simple really: he did the lessons, put in the work. Used the tutorials, followed the directions.
Sure, eventuallyhe supplanted all of this with a membership to NAPP, including Photoshop mag, various training DVD’s, and vigorous searching on-line.

The point is that just by owning the gear, or installing the software, you may not simply, by osmosis, learn how to get the best out of your investment for your creative pleasure. And those around you.
So, just like any exercise DVD or gear, you won’t get much out of it if you don’t actually do the lessons.

We’d like to help.
Sometimes by just pointing you in the direction of available teaching tools, sometimes by putting them in your hands

Let’s talk a moment about printing.

“An image is not a photograph, until it’s a print” – Albert Watson.
True that.

Right now the current standard for digital photo printing is Epson. But watch the others such as HP coming on strong.

Their Epson Stylus R2880 Photo Printer seems to be the preferred 13″ printer for the pro, enthusiasts and fine artists. They have introduced new inks called Ultrachrome HDR. Take a look:

Now, as every manufacturer should be doing, and many now do, Epson has set up new tools and seminars that will help you get the most out of your printer and a good deal of your photography. Makes sense, right?

For instance an excellent training program called Epson Academy, hopefully coming to a town near you, real soon.
It’s coming to Los Angeles, and we’re planning on attending. Oh yeah, we’ll report back.
Heck $50, including lunch for early (3 days before) registration? Sounds like a deal to us.

Maybe we’ll bring the Buns Of Steel DVD, and apply it directly. Sounds like we’ll be sitting for a bit. At least we’ll have buns of dvd.

You have to wonder what would make you want to blindly upgrade to iPhoto 09′ if you are perfectly happy with the previous version.
Sure, it’s part of new version of iLife 09′, including iMovie, iWeb, and GarageBand. OK, getting a lesson on the guitar from Sting on “Roxanne” for $5.00 is pretty darn cool in GarageBand.
But that’s not why you’re here.
We picked up a copy, and ran it through it’s paces.
(remember that when you upgrade any version of iPhoto, it has to re-import your photos so the new software will work. Just letting you know for time consideration. We have 150GB, so it took a while.)

iPhoto 09′ has added some pretty cool new features: It now has facial recognition .

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OK, what that means is you pick a photo, click the Faces icon on the menu, and a white box will appear around each face in the photo, add a name, then it searches through all of your digital photos for similar faces, hopefully that match. You get to confirm or deny the selected possible photos matches.

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Honestly, this first gen application has a looooong way to go. When tagging one of our friends, who is slightly thinning on top, but has other distinctive features, it brought up thousands of shots that were way off the mark.
It certainly doesn’t happen as fast, nor as accurately as we had hoped.
Not be a hater, you can tag a Face, and then upload to Facebook, already tagged with the persons name. After the party, you can post to Facebook with the names on it, and it’s a much faster operation than doing it on Facebook proper.
Hmmmm……Facebook-Faces. Makes sense. Great interface. (sorry)

There is also a geotagging function which lets you tag your photos with the location of the shot.
There are 2 ways to do this: The best way would be to have a GPS device on your camera. We have used one for a long time and so seeing all of our previously tagged photos was cool to see on a global map.
The other way is to type in the local address, as general as a city name, as detailed as a street address.

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enter the info here if it is not included in your digital file

And sure enough, it will tag your photos, map them, and gives you choices of viewing maps.

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list of all of your photos with tagged locations

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Detailed map

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Global map

But here is the thing…We know where we were.
The point of all of the social networking is to share.

If we just had a meal in a great little hidden restaurant, it would be very cool to take a photo and send it off to friends and let them click on the photo, and get them to Google in their browser., and have a pinpointed map show the the way.
Does this program do that?
Continue Reading »

And when we say cord, we mean the ethernet cable.
Sure there is only one DSL, or cable line coming in your office or home,and if you haven’t gone wireless yet, this week we’ll help make that happen.
Knowing that 2/3 of you are on a PC we’ll go right to the best all around solution for getting your workflow where you want it.

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The Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Router.
This will work with either MAC or PC so all of you can get into this one.
You see, if you’re working on a desktop with fine monitors for your Photoshop wonderment, it may be best to have them in a slightly darkened room, where you will get consistent light. In other words, so your color calibrated screens won’t be affected by the noon day sun.
Perhaps the internet connection is in another room because that’s where the cable or phone company put it. But you need the internet to upload your work or download the updates for your favorite program.
Or maybe just surf a little while you take a break from work.
Those “25 Things About You” for Facebook, aren’t going to write themselves, right? And maybe you want to look at the kid drugged up from the dentist on YouTube away from the rest of the place.

Do we really need to tell you more?

OK, maybe you’re on a laptop and the best place for you to work is away from the noise in the house, but that’s is not where the ethernet cord resides.
And of course you can have any number of computers wirelessly connected to the internet with a router.
Sure, each computer needs a proper wi-fi card installed.

This unit has the current fastest connection, the N codec, yet is backward compatible if you have an older machine.

Yeah, it’s not sexy but it will free your workflow up.

Details will be coming in your Weds., 9:00AM NEWSLETTER, so make sure you are signed up to receive it. And remember we don’t share your email address with anybody.

Here is how to get the goods:

1. Check you email inbox and make sure you have the NEWSLETTER from us (info@photoinduced.com)
2. Delete the body of the email (saving server space)
3. Put the special word into the subject line. you know, the one that was in your weekly NEWSLETTER ( sign up for next weeks here)
4. Add a shipping address.
4. Make sure you did all of that.
5. Hit reply.

Reply #50 is getting the official photoinduced box this week.

In the world of photography, we really don’t have a lot of familial passing of the art.
However, the Weston family has shown that their 3 generations of photographers have maintained the dedication and fine artistry of the patriarchal master himself, Edward Weston.
In this first time exhibition at the Duncan Miller Gallery, Kim Weston, son of Cole, has taken his platinum prints and explored adding the colorful element of paint to create a new image.

© Kim Weston

His wife Gina explained it to us this way:
“While Kim was learning how to print in Platinum he ended up with many images that he felt were not the perfect print. Growing up in the world of the “perfect print”, he started going into his studio in the evenings and applying colors to his prints. Feeling a freedom of sorts to color, scratch and apply paints to the surface of the print. The end result exemplifies Kim’s inherent nature of seeing and working in color.”

“My painted photographs have given me a release from surface importance and visual certainty. I can take my image and tweak it to another dimension which if I think about it was my original direction and interpretation of the subject to begin with.”
KIM WESTON

When we heard they were painted photographs, we not quite sure what to expect.
However, the results were beautiful and haunting, as the color paint played with the shadows, and forms.
Weston has added the paint to the prints in a truly brilliant manner. Enhancing the depth and using vibrance only when called for, he keeps the saturation at bay until called for.
The delicate shading of his mostly nude subjects, brings the image to a somehow more upbeat place. In the image above, the dancers legs almost appear to play in the pool of colors, while the colors in other works can redefine the subjects space.

Gina also shared a very cool bit of information: for the past 20 years they have lived in Edward Weston’s little house in Carmel, and if you are familiar with his work, you will have seen this humble abode many times. It was also featured in the DVD documentary we have given away here on the site.
Don’t worry, we’ll do it again.

And the prices on the works was very reasonable, in addition to be one of a kind pieces, beautiful silver gelatin prints with painting on top.

(Please note: we just received this from Gina and Kim Weston -” the prints at the Duncan Miller Gallery are silver gelatin painted photographs. He started painting on platinum prints but soon after starting painting on his silver prints.” Full disclosure)

At the same time , the gallery has a collection of work from Group F.64, an association organized in 1932 by a group of eleven photographers: Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Preston Holder and Brett Weston.

If you would like to see an original print, though not vintage, of the Weston Pepper #30, it’s there.
Plus one of Imogen Cunningham, most iconic photographs,

Yes, this little gallery hidden by bougenvilla in Los Angeles on Venice Boulevard, should be discovered if you live here or are just visiting.

The Duncan Miller Gallery
10959 Venice Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA
90034
Tel: 310 838 2440